WOODS HOLE, Mass. -- The research vessel Atlantis II, laden with a bounty of photographs and videotapes of the unsalvagable wreck of the fabled luxury liner Titanic, arrived home today to the cheers of hundreds of champagne-toasting well-wishers.
Expedition team leader Robert Ballard, expressing no desire to return to the sunken vessel, said he hoped the mountains of photographs 'will satisfy the curiosity of everyone ... and the Titanic can finally rest in peace.'
After a four-day voyage from the Titanic site 400 miles south of Newfoundland, Ballard and his colleagues were welcomed at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute at 10 a.m. with champagne toasts, balloons and 500 spectators shouting, 'You're the greatest! We love you!'
Ballard, who spent 13 days taking the first interior photographs of the legendary ship, told a news conference, 'We're now trying to assemble the images to create a mosaic of the ship. We believe we have almost total coverage to be able to bring a beautiful mosaic.
'I feel very confident that the Titanic will never be salvaged,' Ballard said. 'The bow section is buried so deep into the mud that it would be impossible to pull it out of the bottom' in its state of deterioration.
'It's very fragile,' Ballard said. 'Any attempt to raise it would simply result in breaking it up.'
The 56-member team began the four-day, 800-mile trip back from the site of the sunken Titanic Thursday night before the start of the North Atlantic hurricane season. The explorers were also welcomed back by Adm. Bradford Mooney, chief of naval research.
'The cruise went extremely well,' Ballard said. 'The weather was extremely good to us. I've never been in the North Atlantic for this long a period and had Neptune be that nice.'
Ballard also headed the U.S.-French team that found the Titanic last September, some 2 miles below the ocean surface.
A news conference to release the thousands of pictures and videotapes of the wreckage was scheduled Wednesday at National Geographic headquarters in Washington.
The 882-foot, 46,000-ton Titanic struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank April 15, 1912, killing 1,513 of the 2,224 people aboard.
The ship, considered 'unsinkable,' was the largest and most luxurious vessel of its day and carried some of the richest people in the world.
During 13 days at the site, scientists completed 11 dives to the wreckage in a mini-submarine known as Alvin, photographing virtually the entire outside of the vessel and the debris field in which it rests.
They also dispatched a robot camera known as Jason Jr. on a 200-foot tether to enter and photograph the interior. A second camera sled called ANGUS, equipped with 35 mm still cameras, was used to survey the wreck site.
The Navy paid for the equipment developed by the Woods Hole team. The photographs remain the property of Woods Hole.
The researchers took color videotapes of the exterior of the bow and the severed stern section, which they had not expected to find. They also photographed a variety of debris, including unopened wine bottles and safes.
Sea organisms have stripped the vessel of all its wood -- including intricate ornamental woodworking. In its place, the explorers found eerie icicles of rust -- 'rusticles,' as Ballard called them.
Jason Jr. entered the bow through an opening that had been covered by a skylight over the ship's grand staircase and found remnants of the vessel's former glory, including a crystal chandelier crusted with coral.
No human remains were found, although several shoes were seen in the debris field.
The researchers left behind a plaque on the stern, honoring the victims of the disaster and dedicated to a colleague who died before the wreck was found.
